Julek has assumed countless different identities, lived with numerous families, and worked as a secret agent for the Resistance. He was raised in an orphanage (despite having two mothers), and he knows how to speak the language of dogs. All this at the tender age of fourteen! Julek's story begins in Warsaw on the eve of the Second World War and ends in Paris after the liberation of the city. We witness the darkest hours of the past century and the effects of war through the eyes of an extraordinary boy who never loses his sense of wonder. Julek's adventure becomes an incredible lesson in survival.

Equal parts Life Is Beautiful, The Diary of Anne Frank, and The Book Thief, Joanna Gruda's English-language debut is a thoroughly original novel that will delight adult and young adult readers alike.